Silences
by Tuulikki
Summary: A collection of short drabbles about various characters. So far there's Magatsu, Anotsu, Doa, Rin, Manji, and Makie.
1. Magatsu: what's in a name

A collection of unconnected drabbles about various characters. Most of these take place before the start of the series, so there won't be spoilers.

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><p><strong>characters:<strong> Magatsu, Anotsu  
><strong>word count: <strong>100

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><p><strong>what's in a name <strong>

"Magatsu." Anotsu Kagehisa said the name slowly, as if tasting it. "Magatsu Taito."

He nodded, watching his boss from the corner of his eye, seemingly nonchalant but in truth nervous, and annoyed about it.

"As good a name as any. How do you write it?"

Still quiet, he carved the word on the tree they were leaning against. Anotsu stared at it intently, face as impassive as ever. "I see," he finally said, and nothing more.

They sat in silence, swords resting at their feet in the afternoon heath, the sign for "bad luck" drawn on the tree between them.

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><p>I just found it kind of interesting that the kanji for Magatsu is one that means "bad luck", "disaster," or "villain." Magatsukami would be "evil gods"...<p> 


	2. Doa: sound and fury

**characters:** Doa  
><strong>word count:<strong> 150

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><p><strong>sound and fury<strong>

She stood in the snow, listening to the silence, trying to paint her mind as white as the world around her. _You mustn't let your anger rule you_, her mother had told her, and this time she hadn't.

She was proud of herself.

She was also angry.

Wind moved across the frozen land, its quiet whisper carrying the voices she tried to forget.

_Freak... wicked freak... not one of us... you don't belong here... _

The anger bristled. She hit at the empty air, the sudden movement full of rage.

"I don't even _want to_ be one of you!" she screamed into the wind. A moment she stared into nothingness, eyes sharp and burning, breath quick and deep, before she spun around and started running away from the silence toward a small house and a big man who had strange sad eyes and large gentle hands and who also didn't belong.


	3. Rin: a lean and hungry look

**characters:** Rin  
><strong>word count: <strong>100

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><p><strong>a lean and hungry look<strong>

At night she dreams of a wolf, lean and dark; of narrow eyes that glisten as it watches her from the shadows before turning and running away, and she runs after it as fast as she can, knives in her hands, taste of steel in her mouth, panting, cursing, never quite reaching.

When she wakes up, there is hunger in her eyes; hunger for blood and revenge and strange things for which she doesn't have words, and she lies long in her tangled clothes, doing nothing but breathing as she stares at the ceiling, a wordless oath on her lips.


	4. Rin: tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

It started with the rather obvios title "what's in a name" for the first drabble... and now I seem to be stuck using Shakespearean quotes. (I wonder what I'll do if I write a drabble and can't come up with a quote for it.) Anyways, now I'm almost tempted to change the title of the whole collection to "The Rest is Silence"...

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><p><strong>characters:<strong> Rin  
><strong>word count: <strong>100

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><p><strong>tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow<strong>

Day after day, she trains, alone in the silence of the _dojo_. Her steps echo in the great room, and the sound is more deafening than the clatter of her father's students' ever was. She closes her ears to it and goes on, sword slicing through the air, every movement heavy with one intention: to learn how to kill.

She stumbles, exhausted, but grits her teeth and pushes on. Step, shove, spin, push, step, shove, spin... One _kata_ after another, trying to remember her father's teachings. Perhaps tomorrow she will be better, perhaps, the day after tomorrow, she can kill.


	5. Manji:passing through nature to eternity

**characters:** Manji, Yaobikuni  
><strong>word count: <strong>100

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><p><strong>passing through nature to eternity<strong>

The old woman smiles when she sees him; she doesn't seem to be surprised at all.

"I thought you'd come," she says, and he shrugs.

"You think you know many things, granny," he states, and the old woman cackles.

"Have you made your mind?" she asks, and he doesn't like the way she looks at him. _Amused_, is she? The omniscient old witch...

"You give big promises."

"And I keep them. But are you sure? You might not thank me, later on."

"Bullshit. Who wouldn't want an immortal body?"

Amusement still twinkles in her eyes as she beckons him closer.


	6. Anotsu: method in the madness

**c****haracters:** Anotsu, Magatsu  
><strong>word count:<strong> 100

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><p><strong>method in the madness<strong>

Watching his grandfather he'd long ago arrived to the conclusion that the man was crazy. Still, he wasn't quite prepared to what Taito said one day after he'd had yet another clash with the old fool.

"Sometimes I think you're just as mad as him..."

It was a quiet mutter, maybe not meant for him to hear. Feeling his temper rise he shot a glare at the other boy, but then, closing his eyes, just turned away.

"Perhaps," he said as he started to walk away, not looking back. "But the difference between us is that I will get results."


	7. Makie: if music be the food of love

**characters:** Makie  
><strong>word count:<strong>100

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><p><strong>if music be the food of love, play on<strong>

When he left, she filled the silence with music. The empty hours when she missed him, and wished she'd have the strength not to see him ever again. Her fingers dancing on the strings, she softly hummed to the tone, sometimes sang, most often just went through the lyrics in her head, trying to lose herself in the music, immerse in it, hoping against all hope to find there a way to solace. Or, perhaps, to oblivion.

Just for a moment to forget the life she so loathed; the indecision, the self-contempt, the dreams she couldn't let herself to dream.

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><p><em>(If music be the food of love, play on! Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken and so die.)<em>


	8. Anotsu: cry havoc!

**characters:** Anotsu  
><strong>word count:<strong>100

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><p><strong>cry "havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war<strong>

He let his eyes rest on the men gathered in front of him, examining, evaluating, approving. Truly a strange and shady crowd, a band of misfits, smelling of death. Just as they should be.

"Tonight," he said softly, quietly, but in the immense silence of these rough men his voice could be easily heard, "it will start. Tonight we will take over our first _dojo_. And from tomorrow..." He raised his head, and the fire glistened in his eyes, his voice gained a new force. "From tomorrow, all will know the true meaning of Ittō-ryū."

There was silence no more.

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><p><strong>AN:** That's all for now. One hundred word drabbles don't help to increase the word count of nano much. ^~


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